Last Known ActivityJames Bruce Tolleson was born in 1925 in Spindale, North Carolina although he listed Laurens County, South Carolina as his hometown. His NARA enlistment record shows he enlisted in the Army Air Corps as a private on January 6, 1944 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. It also shows year of birth as 1925, completed 4 years of high school (although he was enrolled at Clemson University for the school year 1942-1943.) His occupation was given as semiskilled dyer, a field with the Textile area.

After basic training, he was sent to aerial gunnery school, and became a gunner on a B-24. In January, 1945, he was assigned to the 868th Bomb Squadron, a special unit reporting directly to 13th Air Force. The B-24s of this unit were equipped with special radar, were painted solid black, and were known for their night-time raids against Japanese shipping in the South Pacific. For this reason, they were known as "Snoopers" or Low Altitude Bombers (LAB).

On his second combat mission, Tolleson and crew took off from Pitoe Airdrome on Borneo to search the Mahakan River in Borneo. A second flight running the same route attempted radio contact, but failed. Two different searches were made, but no wreckage or survivors were found.

One of the crew walked away from the crash (the aircraft had hit a mountain) and was returned to Allied control with the help of natives. A search of the area in 1947 found the wreckage, plus two sets of identified remains along with the bodies of the rest of the crew which were unidentifiable. These unidentified remains were returned to the U.S. and buried in a common grave at Arlington National Cemetery in Section 34, Site 4808. The two identifiable remains were buried in the Manila (PI) National Cemetery and Memorial.

Lts Weisberg and White were the identified crew members, and buried in the Manila (PI) National Cemetery and Memorial. NOTE: At least one source (American Battlefield Commission.gov) gives White's name as "Whyte. The MACR states "White."